On This Day in Moto February 18

February 18

1989

In his 125 Supercross debut, Team Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw won his first race in Miami's Orange Bowl, despite crashing four times. And it wasn't actually his first AMA Supercross, as the previous weekend he made his debut in the premier class and actually finished third. It's no wonder that everyone believed that the "Beast for the East" would be one of the most successful riders of the future. Finishing second and third were California's Ty Davis and New York's Chris Coleman.

In the 250 Class Rick Johnson kept his winning streak going with a fifth straight victory. RJ was the most dominant figure in the sport at the time, seemingly invincible. But no one could have known that night in Miami that they were witnessing the last AMA Supercross race that Johnson would ever win.

Finishing second and showing just how much he had improved in five races was French import Jean-Michel Bayle. He would finish ahead of yet another Honda rider in Jeff Stanton, who would soon become the captain of the team.

Damon Bradshaw. Racer X Archives

2006

In an unexpected turn of events both Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart have disastrous nights at St. Louis, which allowed race-winner Chad Reed to pick up a whole bunch of points and turn the title fight back into a three-way battle. First, the shock linkage broke on Carmichael's Makita Suzuki factory RM-Z450. Then Stewart crashed and could only salvage 17th place points.

Suzuki's Ivan Tedesco would finish a career-best second in 450SX while Honda's Ernesto Fonseca would place third.

The 1978 AMA Supercross Series opened in Seattle and Team Honda's Jimmy Ellis, the '75 AMA Supercross Champion, topped his teammate Marty Tripes and Bob "Hurricane" Hannah of Team Yamaha for the win.

Jimmy Ellis, shot at the 1978 Daytona Supercross, was the winner that year in Seattle. Racer X Archives

1990

The Beaucaire International Motocross took place in France and featured a great battle between Honda HRC factory riders Eric Geboers and Jeff Leisk and Chesterfield Suzuki’s 250cc rider Alex Puzar, with the Italian taking the win ahead of Belgium’s Geboers and Australia’s Leisk.

2017

Just last year at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac got the win over Red Bull KTM teammates Ryan Dungey (in his hometown race) and Marvin Musquin. Finishing fourth and fifth were the current leaders in the ’18 standings—Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson and Honda HRC factory rider Cole Seely.

The 250 Class marked the opening round of the East Region. It was won by Joey Savatgy on his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki, followed by TLD/Red Bull KTM rider Jordon Smith and last night’s winner, Zach Osborne. All three of those riders—Savatgy, Smith and Osborne—would trade wins throughout the series, and they would go into the last round in Las Vegas in practically a three-way tie for the series points lead.